Live in Sarasota If You Want to Build Wealth

SARASOTA, FLORIDA, November 29, 2017 – Yes, it’s true. Sarasota is in the league of San Francisco, New York and Boston as the best regions in the country for investors and business-savvy folks to grow their wealth. A recent study conducted by MagnifyMoney, a media outfit of borrowing service provider LendingTree, is an eye-opener, especially for folks who are weighing the true worth of Sarasota homes for sale.

This research ranked American metropolitan areas based on the percentages of their residents paying capital gains taxes. These levies are imposed on real estate sales and on business revenues, as well as on profits from sales of stocks and bonds, and thus provide an indication where residents are building wealth the most.

Florida’s Big 3

The study compared the 2012–2016 IRS data of the 100 largest U.S. metro areas, using a formula that took into account the per capita number of residents who paid capital gains tax during the period. Sarasota emerged third in the ranking, with Fort Myers on top, San Francisco in second, and New York and Boston at fourth and fifth, respectively. Another Florida metro, Miami, made it in the top 10 at ninth place.

What’s remarkable in this ranking is that Sarasota is right up in the ranks of traditional wealth centers like San Francisco and New York, observes a MagnifyMoney analyst, Brian Karimzad. In their analysis, it showed that 25 percent of residents in the Sarasota region paid capital gains taxes between 2012 and 2016, topping in percentage terms all of the other U.S. metros.

During that four-year period, Sarasotans who paid capitals gains tax shelled out an average of about $56,000, putting the region close to the middle of the list of the metros surveyed. Fort Myers’ percentage of residents paying capital gains taxes was slightly lower than Sarasota’s, but those who paid were taxed nearly double at $103,000.

Foreigners in the Mix

MagnifyMoney’s Karimzad enumerated several reasons why folks with high capital gains tax levels choose to live in Southwest Florida, particularly in Sarasota. One main reason, he said, is the relatively low taxes in the state and its property homestead exemption. Florida’s tax advantage draws not only Americans from elsewhere in the U.S., Karimzad said. He added that it also attracts foreign nationals who believe that the Sunshine State is a fertile ground to grow their wealth.

The middle ground Sarasota presents between cost of living and opportunity, Karimzad noted, is also a plus point for our region. He said that while larger cities like San Francisco and New York offer higher wages, their costs of living are significantly higher.

Connectivity Factor

The MagnifyMoney analyst observed too that an increasing number of people whose occupation or fields enable them to work remotely are choosing to live in cities like Sarasota with lower cost of living while at the same time remaining connected to more expensive regions with high-wage opportunities.

Although our region’s wealth build-up has contributed to Sarasota’s rising housing costs, these are on average still at levels substantially below those in many other larger metros. Even prime local properties, such as waterfront Sarasota homes for sale, are often more investor-friendly as compared to other affluent Florida cities like Naples, Karimzad said.

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